Migrant suspected of raising money from Sudanese and Eritrean migrants, and passing it on to a Sinai-based terrorist organization.

Three men were arrested in recent days, in two police investigations, on
suspicion of financing terrorist organizations.

Police did not say
whether the two investigations were linked.

In the first case, an
Eritrean migrant, named as Kabri Gabriosos, of Tel Aviv, was arrested by the
Serious and International Crimes Unit on suspicion of raising money from
Sudanese and Eritrean migrants, and passing it on to a Sinai-based terrorist
organization.

Gabriosos denied all suspicions against him during police
questioning via an interpreter.

He appeared before the Rishon Lezion
Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, where a police representative handed the court a
secret document detailing the suspicions.

Public defense attorney Dagani
Mashali, who is representing Gabriosos, said police asked his client if he knew
other men suspected of being part of the terror financing ring.

Mashali
asked the police representative if the terrorist organization in question had
been declared as such by Israel, and was answered in the affirmative.

“He
was released on bail after his initial arrest [last week], but failed to show up
for questioning as agreed. We set up ambushes to locate him, and finally got
him.

When we found him, he resisted arrest,” the police representative
told the court.

Gabriosos is also suspected of conspiracy to commit a
crime, money-laundering, and using property on behalf of terrorism.

“This
is a complex and sensitive investigation at its peak,” Judge Sara Zamir said,
adding that “there is a reasonable” link between Gabriosos and the suspicions
against him. His custody was extended by nine days.

On Wednesday, the
Serious and International Crimes Unit brought two other men, an Arab Israeli
resident of Ramle, and a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, before the
Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on suspicions of terror financing.

Both
had been arrested by police at an IDF checkpoint near Hebron earlier on
Wednesday. The Ramle man told police he had been on his way to see a plot of
land in the West Bank he intended to buy, and voluntarily showed police the cash
in his possession. He denied all suspicions against him.

During the court
session, the suspect’s attorney, Yaakov Gabai, asked the police representative
to court, “With whom did he make contact?” “That’s under investigation,” the
representative said.

The suspect said that he had been working for his
father for three years, adding that he has a girlfriend and a young child, and
no history of criminal offenses.

The Palestinian suspect, who has been in
Israeli custody in the past, denied ever knowing or meeting the Ramle resident.
His attorney, Sanayetz Tilawi, said his client had been in touch with a man
named Abu Samah from the Gaza-based Al-Nor charity. “This is a voluntary charity
that helps [Palestinian] prisoners in Israeli jails,” the attorney
said.

“He [my client] did not know and could know he was in touch with a
foreign agent,” Tilawi added, describing his client as a woodshop worker who was
innocent of all the allegations against him.

“There is a reasonable
suspicion that they are linked to the suspicions,” Judge Ita Nahaman ruled,
extending their custody by nine days.